Bill would extend child porn reporting requirement to computer techs

Computer technicians in Illinois would be required to report child pornography found while working on equipment if proposed legislation is approved.

Meagan Sexton

Computer technicians in Illinois would be required to report child pornography found while working on equipment if proposed legislation is approved.

House Bill 5469, drafted by Attorney General Lisa Madigan and sponsored by Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, builds on an existing law that requires film processors to report to police the discovery of child porn while developing photographs.

The bill unanimously passed a House committee earlier this month.

“Sex offenders are increasingly using the Internet to identify and victimize children,” said Madigan in a written statement. “In addition, criminals are using the Internet to expand their ability to distribute child pornography.”

Some Springfield businesses dealing with the repair of computer equipment say they already have policies in place requiring their employees to report such findings.

Justin Barber, corporate spokesman for Best Buy, said if child porn is found on a computer during a repair, the authorities will be notified.

Barber noted, though, that computer technicians at Best Buy are not searching through computer files actively looking for pornographic material.

“We’re not searching through people’s data, because people’s data is important and it’s important to make sure that’s secure. We only look at the data we need to, to get the service repaired,” Barber said.

Brian Dickerson, owner of BLH Computers in Springfield, said that in the last 10 years, his business has had four instances where they decided to report findings of child pornography to police. One of those cases involved a screensaver popping up to reveal illicit pictures, he said.

“If it (a screensaver) shows us a crime, we feel obligated to report it,” Dickerson said. “We will not go looking for any information on your hard drive. We are going to do the tasks you assigned us to do to fix the part.”

Dickerson said some repairs require the hard drive to be backed up, making files accessible.

“Once we have possession of your stuff, we can then call the police and tell them what we have and they can look at our copy,” he said.

HB 5469 would also require Internet service providers to register with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which refers complaints of online child pornography to authorities. Nationally, 377 are registered. In Illinois, there are six.

Opponents of the legislation, if there are any, have been silent.

Mary Dixon, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said her organization has taken no position on the bill.